Professor Polly O’Hanlon
Professor in Indian History and Culture
I teach two option papers for the courses, "Gender and society in India, c. 1800 to the present" and "Societies and Economies in India, c. 1600-1800". In addition I teach a paper in Historical Methods as part of the Research Methods course.
I have researched broadly within the social and intellectual history of India from c. 1600 to the end of the colonial period, with a particular focus on the history of Maharashtra.
I am currently engaged in two research projects. The first is a study of caste and the making of Brahman identities in Maharashtra, c. 1500-1850. The second focuses on gender, and explores the development of Marathi women's letter writing during the period of Maratha political expansion over the course of the eighteenth century.